Jong Tae-se, at the centre of a row between Cologne coach Stale Solbakken and the director of sport Volker Finke, could make his Bundesliga debut on Sunday against Hamburg.
Jong's arrival on transfer deadline day was met with surprise by Solbakken, who was not consulted on the transfer until the last minute.
He criticised Finke for brining in the player behind his back, but now appears to feel the North Korean striker could well fit into his side with Lukas Podolski still sidelined with injury.
"Jong has trained very well over the past few weeks and he is showing good finishing," said Solbakken.
"He has been able to prove his strength in the air again and so, for me, he is an option against Hamburg."
He is therefore a candidate to partner Milivoje Novakovic as Solbakken looks to minimise the impact of the loss of his side's top goalscorer.
"We can score goals without Lukas, as we showed last weekend against Kaiserslautern," added the Norwegian coach.
Last weekend's victory took Cologne above Sunday's opponents, but Solbakken knows the table is still very tight from ninth down to 18th with just seven points separating the teams in the bottom half of the table.
"The league table does not reflect the level Hamburg really are on," he said.
"They have improved a great deal since the first half of the season."
Hamburg's draw with Bayern Munich last weekend was evidence of how much they have improved under Thorsten Fink.
"We have played two good games since the winter break and we now want to build on those," Fink said.
"I would like to see the same performance, the same attitude and the same concentration as we showed against Bayern Munich.
"Then we will also win in Cologne."
Fink will name same team for Sunday's clash, saying: "There is no reason to change."
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